The present invention involves apparatus which functions to rapidly and efficiently separate the leg bone (tibia) from the meat portion of poultry or fowl drumsticks, without the use of cutting elements The apparatus relies instead upon clamping elements and sliding movement to apply tensile forces to the tendons connecting the meat to the hock end of the bone, rupturing the tendons between the clamping elements and the hock. As the tendons are ruptured, the meat, with a portion of the ruptured tendons is gathered into a mass, from which the bone is ejected, and then the mass is exposed for easy removal.
Prior art devices are known which strip meat from poultry drumsticks, however, all appear to be comparatively inefficient, relatively complex, slow in operation, unreliable or have a tendency to leave excessive bone chips in the meat. Many such prior art devices are also difficult to clean and maintain to acceptable human food processing standards.